2003-08-10. Purpose, Ministry
Rio Rancho #66
Topic: Purpose, Ministry
Group: Rio Rancho TeaM
Teacher: Tomas, Anatolia
TR: Gerdean, Matthew
Opening
Music: “Here I Am” – Piano solo, Dorenda
Prayer: (Matthew) [prayer joined in progress as the recording device was not in the correct mode to record the beginning of the prayer] …what we have is the moment and the hope and expectation that you are with us every moment – even when we are not familiar, aware or conscious of your presence or our presence before you, always. For that we seek enlightenment and encouragement that all is well and we have nothing to fear.
We pray that the teachers today will bring messages that will be beneficial and that aid our growth and development which logic and everything else defines – what else would it be but that? But for our comprehension and our growth as a result, we place ourselves before you and our Heavenly Father and Heavenly Parents, now and always.
For the concerns in our hearts that are spoken or unspoken we place those with you now as well. In appreciation forever, we are forever one. Amen.
Gerdean: Tomas is here.
Group: Greetings. Hi, Tomas.
TOMAS: Good afternoon, my dear friends.
I am quite enthused about our gathering today, as I am every week, and as you are developing a yearning to respond to the Divine, which now you know permeates and personalizes throughout Infinity. Within you lies the Infinite, even as you – the mortal – are Finite. The resolution of those two formidable Realities constitutes your Reality as a Living Soul ready to participate in the affairs of your assignment.
Lesson
You have with you – surrounding you and in you – underneath you and over you – the blessed Trinity in one representation or another. But your willingness to grow along the lines of the assimilation of the Reality that Indwells you and the Reality that you are co-creating is an Invisible and Invincible part of Creation. Yes, thus, as I see you go about your lives in good cheer and spreading the Love of Divinity to those you meet in your lives is enough to render me enthusiastic about our work and about our future.
But this is Faith! As we sit here in company this afternoon, we are gathered in Faith. Can we feel the Faith that is palpable between us, among us? Can we feel the atmosphere of the Celestial Kingdom? This Divine fellowship is your Supernal Destiny in the Infinite sense and the Assignment in a Finite sense. For we will bring about Light and Life one day for all Urantia, as you are experiencing and enjoying its nature – today.
As you bond together as family, you sustain each other’s Faith Path – not from a meek need to lean on your fellows, but to stalwartly stand strong next to one another. Each of you carry your task of Soul Survival into the Union of Souls. And this effort is for the Supreme. The Supreme becomes Realized as an Effect from the Cause that we put in motion by our combined Divine will to see His will manifest in all things, in all matters and in every manner.
You are a fortress. Within yourself you are a fortress. In your core resides the Divine, and you reach inward and upward to ascertain your Path – that which it feels for you. This is foremost for your Reality. And you also as a group are a formidable force. For when the time comes – and when you have all performed according to Divine will – following Divine Pattern – undertake together a function, an organization, a service, a project or a worship, you will be more effective because of your Joint Consecration to having His will be done. This is Community. This is the Fellowship of men and women which will lead the way into Light and Life. This is our Assignment.
And it gives me great joy to perceive you living out your Assignments, but I want to point out to you that there are ‘Other’ Assignments. There are ‘Other’ Paths which are formulated and have been created by Deity and that have Other purposes and Other worlds and Other Assignments – depending upon the circumstances of Universe development which is necessary and available to be done and called into being for That Purpose and for That Period of Time of Reality Development that contributes also to the Evolving Supreme in these many worlds of Time and Space, in these many facets of Universe Discovery. The Hand of God is at work.
This will give you Peace, to know that while you know everything you need to know Infinitely, it is a part of your Eternal Career to always find and discover that which is Different from you ~ redeemed and beloved. Such is the Family of Man and the nature of the Worlds of Time and Space. Such individuality of Purpose also manifests in the Invisible Realms of all the seven super-universes, and not excluding Havona – even Paradise – defies definition for its different Facets of Reality.
And so you are invited to avow a Loyalty to the Divine which transcends your Cultural Perspective, thus leaving the door open to learn to love yet more about our Source as we advance into Perfection.
The establishment of these Individual reflections of the First Garden of Eden is essentially a striving to attain the Perfection of Edentia, your Constellation Capitol. And so, even while each of your Gardens are Temporal and Finite, they also reflect the ideal of the Invisible and the Infinite. This balance is a State of Grace, indeed. And we are joyed to observe your attainment and the subsequent effects – which is a furtherance of the Reality of God through the Mortal Brotherhood of Man. I’ve concluded my remarks from the podium. I relinquish the floor.
Matthew: Anatolia is here.
ANATOLIA: Welcome, all, this fine Sunday – one in which, some of you anyway, have reason to celebrate … a near torrential rain, yesterday – which, whenever it occurs in the desert, is most welcome and certainly needed. This is what it’s like in terms of bringing Good News to those who wait, those who are eager to learn, as the Soul seeks nourishment and thirsts for righteousness, as your desert conditions so ably demonstrate. That without the Kinder side of Life – as rain demonstrates – Life can be harsh, severe and certainly without encouragement or nurturing.
This one of the lessons for today in terms of being Spiritually Ready. When the time arrives for those who are seeking Truth and wish to demonstrate Goodness and are dedicated to being, sharing and seeking Love – we benefit by being mindful of what is happening and why. Much can be gained from the experiences that Life has to offer. And if you are paying attention you will most likely be able to derive the message that is intended to be directly given as well as the more subtle messages which may appear immediately – if not later, upon hindsight.
What I’m speaking of is much like your desert conditions. Your life here in the mortal state is somewhat similar and often, without rhyme of reason, Time, Circumstance or Opportunity lend themselves to your ordinary experience as Extraordinary influences and encouragements upon your everyday life. Much like the rain when it is needed – long overdue and very much appreciated – these New Opportunities, Insights and Gifts to the Spirit are just that – brought to you when it is necessary, helpful and most of all Life-saving and reorienting.
What I am talking about is that Life, if you are Living it, lends itself to Growth, lends itself to New Experience, and lends itself to Opportunity – while being awaited, Arrives when it is Most Necessary. So whenever you are feeling that your time has been, your days of opportunity, your moments of insight have already been experienced, let me assure you that this is NOT the case. You will continue to experience and to grow and to have insight for to not to is to have shut off your Life Support, to have turned off your Light and thrown away the cord. This is not within your nature, or within your being, to be the case.
So I encourage you that when it is apparent that discouragement and disappointment may prevail, that this – like the awaiting of rain – will be overridden, will prevail as Life will prevail.
I encourage you to continue to seek and you will find. This is the essence of Faith. Not that you simply believe, but that you continue to seek that which you need in all respects — for your Life here is 3-dimensional. In that respect you have all types of back-dropping. You are not simply placed as a gumdrop upon a white sheet of paper in a white environment that is stark and without stimulation, color and depth. Rather, you have everything you need to allow yourself to grow and to be the Full Force of your being, both here and throughout eternity.
I encourage you to seek this, your continued growth and understanding, even in the moments when it appears unlikely and that you have been forgotten among the fauna and rocks and other items of the desert. Bloom eternal, my dear ones, and know that you are as precious as the most rare of desert flowers. For this is where you are thriving – where there is infrequent rain, plenty of sun, and otherwise hope springs eternal. I will offer you my solace and my encouragement and support every step of the journey until we meet in person and share the opportunities for growth and stemming throughout your galaxy.
I leave you in good stead knowing that the Father’s Spirit guides you always as He guides me. Peace be with you, and may you return, when we meet again, in full and living color, happy to be alive and with one another. Until then, peace be with you.
Group: Thank you. Thank you, Anatolia.
TOMAS: She shall not get rid of me that easily. (Group chuckles) I am in contact with Anatolia on a daily basis, you would say. It is my pleasure to often share with my co-teacher, Anatolia, and many others, what we speculate to be the emerging of the Divine Plan – for you and for us – in this fundamentally unique situation that we find ourselves in, in this assignment with you.
And so it comes to the point in our gathering that involves us more closely with you in terms of your work in the field of your undertaking, of your Assignment and your speculations as to what His will is in your realm and how you go about living within it. The floor is yours. Are there questions?
Dialogue
Elena: Yeah. I have a question about a situation that I can’t quite shake. No matter who I talk to — mother, and I talked to my sister, and everyone about and I felt this morning it turning around a little bit, and I think it might be a good thing to share with the group.
I have a friend who I feel relatively close to. I really like her very much. I had the feeling that we were honoring and respecting one another’s spiritual paths forward – certainly I was hers. And this week – she’s a member of a more fundamentalist kind of group – and this week I sent an email to her and a couple of other people at work – something I’ll probably NEVER do again! — but I got kinda lambasted by her and just showered with scripture with red letter highlighting of the King James Version and she said that the phrases in our lessons were changing the quotations of Jesus and that this (our studies) was the devil’s work and mentioned that I was participating in a cult – and I just – whoa!
I’ve been trying to shake this off and I haven’t been able to yet. Frankly – in the email, I prefaced it saying by that I wasn’t pushing this toward anyone, but that we’d gone through (at work) such a difficult two-week period that this particular lesson from Abraham might be helpful to somebody else, too. And whoa! I got it right between the eyes. This person can just kinda dissect me and eviscerate, – ya know? – in all directions. I feel like I need to be more focused myself, but I’m still having difficulty just shaking it off.
Menopah: Well you know, Dorenda, I’ll say to you what I might say to Janet (Paula) – you don’t want to carry that baggage with you. You just mustn’t do it. You need to forgive that person – whoever they are – and be done with. I call it ‘baggage.’ It’s a kind of grudge. But – I know your intentions are good. I think sometimes, you know, our intentions are good but they just don’t seem to work out…
Esmarelda: I think Dorenda (Elena), though, was really hurt by it and I think that, that is what she can’t shake – that feeling of being hurt.
Elena: Yeah.
Paula: Nobody else has the right to be judgmental. So if I were you I would cut her right smack out my life. I would. If she decides that she can tell you what you should do or not do it’s none of her goll-darned business and she ought to just get lost and out of your life. We don’t need people in our lives who interfere with the way we are headed. Just like if somebody would say to me “don’t buy that house – you don’t need that – especially at your age.” Well phooey on ‘em. Because it’s none of their business. So I’d just say – you’ve got loads of good friends and close friends who think the world of you and if there’s somebody who is criticizing you – Drop ‘em! You don’t need them in your life. Just X them right out! (more laughter) And that’s my opinion…not somebody else’s.
Menopah: And you’re stuck with it.
Thoroah: I had a very similar situation. My cousin, who I grew up with, who was the closest person on the planet to me when I was growing up — outside of my parents and sisters. We were always very close. And it wasn’t until I found the Urantia Book – which he turned me onto – that he gave me the same type rhetoric and the type of reaction to it – it (the UB) being so foreign to the doctrine and dogma of his fundamental beliefs – that he said it was the “devil’s stuff” that I was involved with.
The part about all of this that makes it even more perplexing is the friendship and the closeness that seems to suddenly just be worthless because of this different track of belief – and that’s what is probably the most hard thing to overcome – how do you return to that respect, and – well, we even ended up, my cousin and I, not communicating. We tried but we couldn’t. We couldn’t without antagonizing each other, and so I just let him go and let him believe the way he wants to believe and I’m not going to try to communicate with him for the time being because no matter what I try or no matter what he tries, we always think the other is trying to do some persuasion in there. It’s just the way the chemistry is, and no matter if it’s innocent or not, the other one suspects the other one of trying to ‘sell’ them somehow and it just has to be let go of and grown into a whole other thing, I guess.
Esmarelda: Well, I think that some people are just not ready to accept anything other than just the King James Version. And I know several people who take it absolutely verbatim and exactly every word as it is written and there’s nothing else. I know I was talking to one person and he started talking — this man brought up the subject of religion and then he asked me what I believed and I told him that we were into the Urantia group and we did – for lack of a better word for T/R’ing – ‘channeling’ and he said, “Oh, that couldn’t be possible because when Jesus was on the cross he said, “It is finished.” and that he meant nothing more to ever say to us on earth.
And another person that I talked to about it just thought that I was probably somewhat like what Deborah (Elena’s friend of reference) said about Elena, that she might be misleading others and was being misled herself, and that’s what this person said to me. And so with that I concluded that my missionary work needed to just take a different channel and not try to – in any way elaborate – even though both of these people brought up the subject to me of their beliefs. And so I decided that I was just going to live my life and be a friend to man here on my own little corner, and that’s about the best I can do.
Thoroah: Friendships have a way of deteriorating when you start sharing ‘beliefs.’ You can get along with someone, and as long as you don’t know what their ‘belief system’ is – in so many words – but you work together and get to know each other and you build a relationship and that’s their religion – that’s their Real Religion where they really live, but when people try to Speak about their religion then it separates people. It seems like a road to division.
Esmarelda: Well, I don’t understand that exactly because I’m fascinated by what others’ believe because I think that what everybody believes – we’re actually all believing in the same Father, but we have a different way of interpreting. And I think everybody is entitled. And I don’t know why some people are so quick to say, you know, “My way’s the way and your way is wrong.” I don’t think that your way is wrong. For them, that is their belief and that’s all good. I think that all religions have their place.
Menopah: I think when you start saying that, you’re on some very shaky ground–
Esmarelda: If you say that all religions are okay?
Menopah: No…if you say “The right way is my way. Here’s the way. This is the way for YOU to live.”
Esmarelda: I just don’t think we really and….
Menopah: We’re all on a path and we’re all trying to understand. And that’s just about where we are.
Thoroah: It shakes people’s confidence when they see somebody else believing something and if it works for them (the others). It shakes their confidence in what they believe, because they aren’t necessarily believing what they believe; they’re believing what they’ve been told to believe or led to believe. They’re not really sure about what they believe and so their confidence is shaken, and the only way they can regain confidence is to continue to think that they have the right way, that “others” have the wrong way. But basically I don’t think that they have enough of a core belief of their own so they are confused.
Esmarelda: Well, I just think people are short on understanding and some are very narrow minded.
Menopah: I’ve had to abandon some my own beliefs that were instilled in me since I was a little kid. My grandparents were staunch Southern Baptists – they are fundamentalists by-and-large – and I’d been taught and come to believe that it was absolutely necessary for Prince Michael to abdicate his Godly attributes and come to this earth because of the SINFUL condition of man – passed on to us – We didn’t commit the sin in the Garden of Eden but Adam and Eve our forebears did, – and so I thought that was passed on to us and it was absolutely necessary for Christ to come in order to tip the scales back and make them even. And, well, I don’t know about that. I really don’t. Not now, I don’t.
Paula: Well, Carl’s (Menopah) heard me say many times that the Bible is a great book, it’s a wonderful book, but we have to stop and remember that it wasn’t written by somebody with their finger coming out of the sky. It was written by men! People. Just ordinary people. Well they were good and holy I guess.
Menopah: They wanted to believe they had the hand of God on them. You know that they were inspired, at least.
Paula: They were inspired and all that, but you don’t take the Bible …. As it says in our church, you respect it but you don’t take it literally, word-for-word, because as I say, it was written by men. When Christ was born and lived people just didn’t have things put down in writing.
TOMAS: I’m going to interrupt, if I may. This is Tomas and I have thoroughly enjoyed your discussion. I encourage discussion of this ilk in the future. I am not meaning to stop your discussion, but to commend the way you have comported yourself in this gathering. In the interim it has given us all a fine opportunity, from this side, to observe the complications of the condition of the religious status of your civilization in the realm in which you work. Not that we were not aware of that already, but as it relates to you, the students, that we work most intimately with.
The evolved religions all have contributed greatly to the advancement of spiritual concepts and even more recent religions which have emerged, not excluding Mohammedanism, Bahiaism and the many modern ‘isms’ of a spiritual nature. These all reflect the values inherent in the time and place of the peoples who convened together to create the religion, to support the culture that developed around those core spiritual needs, in that geographic area at that point in time.
These differences now are a result of the many ways the Spirit has developed. None of them are wrong. And for anyone, obviously, as you have discovered in your discussions, to testify that this is right not only for me but for you as well, is in fact extending beyond the boundaries of civility that show respect for the personality of man, and that includes his religious background and personal commitments — to deity any other important aspects of Life that presents a Value sacred to that individual and/or that group of individuals.
Now you live in a Christian country, even though it is generously infused with many other religious aspects at this point in time. But even among Christendom there are many differences. Even now there is a new schism going on in the Church, having to do with the nature of Church, it’s devotees, its proponents and the like. These serve a purpose – these different groupings for different reasons at different times – and the option is yours to adapt, merge, discern, discard, ignore, or discover that which has Value. For this is the Right of Choice, the sanctity of free will.
Even words can confuse the issue when you talk about matters close to the heart of people. This is why I often stress ‘defining your terms,’ for what may mean “born of the spirit” to you may mean something completely different to someone else. And so the ultimate path to take, for those of you who discern the Value of evolving life as well as the ideals of Infinity, is to do as you have been admonished in your teachings, and that is to LIVE that which you believe rather than to ESPOUSE what you believe.
As in parenting, it is how you live your life that your children are impressed, and not by what you Tell them. But what they tell you can certainly cause havoc in your mind, and until such time as you can discern through your own Spirit of Truth what bearing that has on your Spiritual Path, you will, as Menopah indicated, be carrying around a lot of baggage. But that, again, is for individual discernment as to what matters and what doesn’t matter when it comes to their Right to Be Themselves f and to reflect that self, even Imperfectly, as they go about ‘Doing Good” as they see it. This does, indeed, lend great texture to the quality of Life that you Live — you who are conjoined with the planet Urantia, this most fascinating sphere.
There is no answer a broken heart except to mourn and pass to the next Love Affair Life presents. In your scenario, Elena, there is no call for anyone to abruptly slam the door on your Pearls, no matter how silly, inane, or mistaken they may be. And thus you grieve, and that is what you are experiencing. Because you have been wounded, in your innocence and your naivete. But this only a temporary – momentary – setback, and from this experience you will emerge having learned something … NOT cynical, not bitter, not about the depravity of the human limitation, but of Hope and Sportsmanship that will enable you to make more wise choices in your future actions as it concerns your presentation of Truth, Beauty and Goodness.
Paula: All I can say is, anybody who is so short-sighted and stupid to criticize you in any way needs to have their head examined, and when people try to interfere with your life like that, there’s only one thing to do – and that’s to just cut’em dead. You’ve got a lot of good friends. You don’t need people like that in your life. I had one like that in my life and I’m cutting him dead, believe me.
TOMAS: This is another one of those instances where in a definition of terms would be most helpful. The phrase, “cutting him dead,” Paula, is a murderously unfriendly phrase.
Paula: I meant it that way!
TOMAS: You can rephrase your terminology to not be so ugly, yourself.
Paula: Well, I’m ugly then.
TOMAS: You are not! and this is my point. You can certainly stick to your values and indeed, feel as if they need to be upbraided and have their mouth washed out with soap. This is “cutting him dead.” Even refusing to invite him to your next tea party, because this is sociably acceptable behavior. But when I hear my student, you, my precious child, speaking with such words as to vilify a bystander is an occasion for me to “cut you dead” and point out to you that you can do better. You have a rich vein of Truth within you, but you have been brought up by your mortal parents to have a better expression of propriety, and this goes a long way toward retaining your spiritual fragrance. You have so much to give, you shouldn’t discolor yourself with those barbs.
But for those of you who think that our child here is worthy of “cutting her dead”, shutting the door on her, and never speaking to her again … think again. For even the most beautiful rose in the garden has thorns. And there is no doubt in my mind that, while Paula’s thorn is evident, there are other prickly aspects of each of you that are perhaps more subtle or buried in the foliage, but there is not one among you who is completely perfect.
Esmarelda: Tomas, I think that Paula, too, at that time was, because of her love for Dorenda (Elena), was being a defender of Dorenda (Elena).
TOMAS: It is a natural part of Valor that you defend your loved one. This is a natural inheritance, yes, in the noblest of animal characteristics. But in the Spirit, it is entirely unnecessary for the Father does not need defending.
Paula: I’m a real stinker! I am! (much laughter and ‘we love you – you are adorable – everybody loves you’ from the group) But I’m sure not a bit holy because when people hurt somebody that I care about, I don’t want anything to do with them. And I feel that you have plenty of good friends why should you continue being friends with somebody who is not worthy of it.
TOMAS: Obviously that thorn is going to prickle for quite a while. Can we move along?
Elena: Okay, but I appreciate all of you and I thank each one of you for your thoughts. Each one of you had something that did help me with the situation and I really appreciate each one of your comments. So thanks to each and every one of you…and I am including Tomas too.
TOMAS: I will add to that then. I will suggest that you respect the difference between Personal Ministry and Public Ministry. Within the realm of Personal ministry, you are assisted in the Presence by the Father through your Adjuster, by Michael, through your Spirit of Truth, and the Mother Spirit through all the Adjutant Mind Spirits, and they can not only help you, they can deliver the Goods.
But when you speak to a vast audience or in an impersonal media such as the internet or correspondence to a group of people, you have a different set of rules to follow because the receptivity capacity of your Hearer is different than it is in the intimacy of a fond embrace. Thus, in future you can protect yourself from such losses by developing Diplomacy in your outreach — unless, of course, like Paula, you don’t give a ‘hoot!’
Elena: Well, sometimes that’s even helpful too.
TOMAS: Yes. There is no doubt in my mind that any one of you would go to nearly any lengths to support that which was Beautiful, True and Good in your mind. And this does establish you as reasonable human beings. I am simply asking you to become Superhuman.
Esmarelda: We want to be, too.
Elena: Well, that is the intention, I mean I do want to convey that perfection. Like in today’s lesson, I forget whether it was you or Anatolia said that … well, it was Anatolia – it was the rain and what came after the rain…and each circumstance that we were given had fruits to come from each one of those, that may not be evident at that particular time but with hindsight or further looking at it had things that would flower and emerge.
So actually this is good for me because each one of your perspectives has provided me with that, and instead of just being hurt, Paula’s help of trying to bolster me up a little bit, has kind of helped separate me from the hurt, too. So this is extremely helpful. It really is. Each one of you and certainly Anatolia and you, too, Tomas. The Diplomacy and the need to learn further so that I can be more effective is certainly my aim.
TOMAS: There is also something to be said for Assessment of a situation as compared to pre-judging a situation. If you intend to pre-judge a situation before you have even beheld it, you have closed out the possibility of Joy as well as pain. But to have experienced the pain and said, “I don’t want to experience that again,” you are not coming from a negatively prejudiced point of view. You have experienced and thus you are coming from a point of experience. And yet as we discussed, in the ever-changing, ever-growing, ever-expanding, ever-developing, ever-illuminating Life that you are living in the Spirit – while in the flesh – you are able, at any time at any moment on any day, to discard the Realities that were effective in former times for the New Reality to present itself today.
And so the Path includes a constant flow of forgiveness – forgiveness for the Ignorance that is inherent in an evolving world. Not only your Ignorance but Other’s Ignorance. It is innate in such a life on such a planet. Yet, your consistent reaching for that which is [Tbg|True and Beautiful and Good]], in you and in your fellows, is the most effective tool to thwart the darkness and the Ignorance that is often the Prevalent Reality.
Closing
When we meet again we will continue our rapport, and yet I feel our afternoon has peaked and is waning. In these waning moments of our sanctuary, have you any other matters at hand to bring to our attention? I will leave you, then, in this marvelously pregnant moment that is filled with potential Life and Devotion. Amen and farewell.
Group: Thank you, very much. Thank you, Tomas. Thank you.
